sleep together, hook up, make love, score, hit it, bone, etc.
Go to the toilets (British), Go to the bathroom (US), restroom, loo, WC, lavatory (literally a sink!), mens room, ladies room, etc.
Euphemism (cont)
An interesting thing about a euphemism is, everyone typically knows what it means! (at least at first)
We make up a new, more acceptable, label for a thing and that makes saying the thing a little more okay!
But someone who is vertically challenged is still short, right?
And someone who has wet himself or been let go or been downsized or has thrown up or whose partner thinks they should take a break is still having a really terrible day, right?
Ling Link
We’re going to watch a 2 minute video, after which this slide will come back up.
What does ‘fluffy’ mean? (slightly harder: what lexical category is it being used as in the video? noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, etc.?)
Do you think the characters in the show know that it is a euphemism? Or are we supposed to believe it’s just their word?
What are some other euphemisms you know that mean the same thing as ‘fluffy’?
Can you think of non-euphemistic terms for that thing??
Who Fluffied?
Ling Link
What does ‘fluffy’ mean? (slightly harder: what lexical category is it being used as in the video? noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, etc.?)
Do you think the characters in the show know that it is a euphemism? Or are we supposed to believe it’s just their word?
What are some other euphemisms you know that mean the same thing as ‘fluffy’?
Can you think of non-euphemistic terms for that thing??
Language is arbitrary
Language is arbitrary
This solves the problem of how 7,000 languages can each have their own words for such basic things as mother, father, finger, day, night, food, etc., etc., etc.
But it creates a whole new problem that is just as puzzling…
How do words get their meanings?
Euphemisms often become just normal words
When a new euphemism enters the language (like when people started saying ‘unalives’ or ‘pew pew’ on social media), everyone knows what it really means and why someone would use it
But then normal word stuff happens to it, we forget it is a euphemism, and it just starts to mean the thing.
Bathroom, passed away, senior, wealthy, pee, with child, sleeping together, powder one’s nose, to be let go, mature, adult, and on and on
These all started as euphemisms but then the euphemistic connotation was lost
Computer
As recently as the 1940s, this was a room full of computers.
This was the literal meaning of the word computer, its denotation
A computer was someone who solved math problems (maybe for a living), just like a plumber is someone who works with pipes or a driver is someone who drives.
what changed? why doesn’t it mean this anymore?
To know a word
Knowing a word requires (at least) four kinds of knowledge:
Phonetic / phonological knowledge: what sounds make up the word?
Syntactic knowledge: how does the word work in a sentence
Morphological knowledge: what meaningful units is the word assembled from?
Semantic knowledge: How does the word mean?
What is semantics?
Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning
Deals with the systematic ways in whcih languages structure meaning, especially in words and sentences
There are three main types of meaning:
Denotational meaning: (aka ‘linguistic meaning’) The literal thing, action, idea, syntactic information that the word points to in our minds
Affective meaning: emotional connotation attached to words and utterances
Social meaning: How we identify certain social characteristics of speakers and sitations (e.g. y’all, pop/soda/coke, whom)
Denotation & Connotation
The literal meaning of a words is its:
Connotation
Denotation
Condensation
Declaration
Attendance Question 9-16 (lecture day 8)
Our attendance question for today is on canvas and the access code is on the whiteboard.
Mental Lexicon
All of this information about words is stored in our mental lexicon
Contains information about:
lexical category
sentence use
pronunciation
meaning(s)
Linked to other related words
mindmap
root((fluffy))
/ˈflʌˌfi/
ADJECTIVE
mindmap
root((fluffy))
/ˈflʌˌfi/
ADJECTIVE
Light & soft
sheep
kitten
Sully from Monsters Inc.
Cotton Candy
mindmap
root((fluffy))
/ˈflʌˌfi/
ADJECTIVE
Light & soft
sheep
kitten
Sully from Monsters Inc.
Cotton Candy
frivolous
reality tv
Dan Brown books
pop music
mindmap
root((fluffy))
/ˈflʌˌfi/
ADJECTIVE
Light & soft
sheep
kitten
Sully from Monsters Inc.
Cotton Candy
frivolous
reality tv
Dan Brown books
pop music
NOUN
flatulence slang
Australian
Bluey
Sauerkraut
Beans
childhood cat
longhair
nebelung
likes aquariums
Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
